Today’s passage: Ephesians 6:21-24

Helpful thoughts:

• The idea of missionaries or ministers writing and travelling to share with partnering churches is biblical.  It is wonderful to host our missionaries to encourage them and to hear of the Lord’s work through them.
• The church was right to care about Paul’s ministry AND Paul’s well-being.  We as a church don’t just want our missionaries to be fruitful in ministry output.  We also want them to be growing personally and taken care of physically.
• Paul prays for peace, love, faith and grace for the church at Ephesus.

Questions to consider:

1. What needs might missionaries (Both domestic and international) have that could get overlooked?  What hardships do they experience that are the same as everyone else’s?
2. How could we as a church encourage our missionaries while they are with us?  How might you be able to share with them how their faithfulness has encouraged your faith?
3. What is a love that is incorruptible?  What caused us to have that kind of love for Jesus?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 6:14-20

Helpful thoughts:

• The armor:
  • Truth (The defensive use of the Word of God)
  • Righteousness
  • Readiness given by the gospel of peace (Meaning: Gospel-Centered thinking produces Gospel-Centered actions)
  • Faith
  • Salvation
  • Word of God (As a sword, the offensive use of the Word of God)
• This armor is to be taken on with prayer which is characterized as alert, persevering, for all other believers, for boldness, and all of this in the Spirit.
  • Being “In the Spirit” means to be in step with the Spirit…in accord with or in agreement with.
    • One great way to do this is to pray the Scripture!
• Even the Apostle Paul requested boldness in proclaiming the Gospel.

Questions to consider:

1. Where does all this armor come from?  Who created it and gifted us with it?
2. What part of this armor doesn’t have to do with the Word of God and the Gospel? (The same Gospel-Centered thinking that unites us also defends us!)
3. How does a passage like this (“The Armor of God”) help us to respond with more compassion and better help when we see a brother or sister struggling?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 6:10-13

Helpful thoughts:

• Our strength and might come from the Lord.  We didn’t get picked for the team by God for being strong.  He is our strength.
• We (The Church-Individually and corporately) have an actively scheming, wrestling, powerful enemy who is a force of evil and wants to destroy…and he has company.
• Our command is to take up the armor that God provides and with it, resist and stand firm.

Questions to consider:

1. Since a major theme in the book of Ephesians is unity, what might be a major target or goal for our enemy?
2. If our unity is found in Christ through the Gospel, what kinds of things would Satan want us to focus on instead?
3. If our unity as a church comes from Christ through the Gospel, what won’t it come from?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 6:5-9

Helpful thoughts:

• There are examples of abusive and non-abusive (Even voluntary) slavery throughout Scripture and history.  The slavery in the United States was certainly abusive.
  • The Bible never affirms abusive slavery. It did however give instructions to those who were currently in the midst of it.
  • If a slave master were to have been graciously saved and then read this passage, he was instructed to stop any and all abuse and to respect and treat his slaves as human beings who were just as valuable as him.  And, when the Gospel was shared with them, they could become his brothers or sisters in Christ and joint-heirs in the kingdom! (See Philemon)
• Verse 8 confirms that the instructions in this passage can be applied by all who work under a boss (Bondservant or free).
• There is no partiality with God.  No socioeconomic class is superior or inferior to any other.

Questions to consider:

1. All bosses and employees, how are you doing in the workplace?  How is your work and leadership/servitude honoring God and potentially even pointing people to Jesus?
2. How has the sin of the slavery in our nation’s history impacted the life of the church?  What would have to happen in the hearts of a congregation (Regardless of their initial majority ethnicity), along with the hearts of new members, to allow for their membership to be as multi-ethnic as Heaven is going to be?
3. Ephesians 5:21 commanded mutual submission for all who are in Christ.  How does this final passage regarding bondservants/employees and masters/employers display mutual submission?  How do employers serve their employees?  How does that service exemplify Christ?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 6:1-4

Helpful thoughts:

• Obedience is an action.  Honoring is an attitude.
  • The time of obedience comes to an end (e.g. Ephesians 5:31), but honoring lasts a lifetime (Matthew 15:1-6).
• The promised blessing that “It may go well with you and that you may live long in the land” was originally given to the Israelites (Exodus 20:12).
• The Greek word for “Fathers” in verse 4 could refer to both parents collectively.  Fathers and mothers can apply this verse.
  • Both discipline and instruction are to be used for correction for the growth of the child.
  • Selfishly motivated discipline and instruction provokes.

Questions to consider:

1. How does obedience “in the Lord” and the discipline and instruction “of the Lord” keep everyone in the family focused on the right goal?  For whom should a child obey and honor?  For whom should a parent discipline and instruct?
2. What are some selfishly motivated reasons for parents to discipline and instruct their children?  What is it that parents would want so much they are willing to provoke in order to get it?
3. Since children in the U.S.A. are most likely not going to grow up and inherit land in Israel, how could we best understand the promise that is given to those who obey and honor their father and mother?  How might things go well with them?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 5:25-33

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus didn’t love the Church because she was beautiful.  The Church is beautiful because Jesus loved her.
• The submissive role of the wife in a marriage does not result in the husband taking on the role of a taskmaster.  Quite the opposite is true.  Husbands are specifically called to take on the mind of Christ in Philippians 2:5-8.
• Ephesians 5:21 called for mutual submission in the church.  Both the husband and the wife sacrifice themselves for each other in different ways. Ephesians 5:33 calls these ways “love” and “respect”.

Questions to consider:

1. What was the condition of my heart when God showed me His love? (Romans 5:8)  How should that impact a husband’s decision to love his wife proactively?  Should a husband wait for his wife to act a certain way before he chooses to show her love?
2. How does the love of Christ help us define love correctly?  Is it a feeling?  Is it only ever to be initiated by affection?  What is the goal of loving?  What should result from the love of a husband for his wife?
3. Who deserves the credit for the perfection that the church will possess when she is forever united with Christ?  Who died for her, redeemed her, washed her, etc.?  How does this truth elicit praise, thanksgiving, and respectful submission to God?